Loving wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and grandmother.
She passed away unexpectedly on Monday, February 17, 2020 at 11:30 pm. She was surrounded by those she loved... the huge legacy she created. Born on December 13, 1929 to Paula Castro and Miguel Rodriguez in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico. She was raised by an amazingly strong woman who was her role model in finding opportunities despite all the hardships a life in Mexico brought.
During her childhood, she finished school, married and had two sons Jose Luis and Julian. She was widowed yet went back to school and became a hair and nail technician to support her children while living in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico. Here she met the love of her life, Duane Altig and they married on May 18, 1956. Her “Rojo” fell hard and offered her a new life in a new country. This brave woman took a leap of faith for love and brought her boys, to the United States to join her and her new husband.
However, she never forgot her home and continued to nurture her strong ties with her heritage and her family in Mexico. She would return many times to see her mother and beloved brother Margarito Candela. She cherished her relationships with her numerous nieces and nephews that continued to this day.
On arriving in the US, Duane adopted her boys and they had a daughter, Juanita. They set roots in Portland, where she worked at Moreno’s Mexican Food Restaurant as a waitress and at Jantzen Swimwear as a seamstress to help put her husband through school. When Duane landed a teaching position they moved on to Prineville where she stayed home to give her kids numerous memories of small city living. Here she was blessed with her twins, Dean and Duane.
In 1967, they moved back to Portland, where she found talents she had shared with her mom in food, and began restaurant work and worked many jobs including Sacramento Elementary school cafeteria, chef at Zapata’s Mexican Food, Jimmy and Miguel’s and Rodeo Restaurants. She helped seniors at St. Patrick’s church and in a nursing home job until she eventually opened her own restaurant, Casa Lucia. Many family memories of this time of making the restaurant successful included her kids and grandchildren who put on aprons and helped out. During this time, she also built a daughterly relationship with her niece Lucia who became their sixth child.
Upon retirement, they moved to Vernonia, Oregon where her talents of finding friends in everyone and being the most social person in the room proved valuable as she built tons of relationships with people there including reconnecting to our extensive Altig family.
After 11 years, they returned to Portland and moved into a house close to family and after 63 years she and Duane were still very much in love. Family became her focus and spending time with her flowers, her friends and practicing her faith. Her garden and faith brought her solace, peace and direction in her life.
She was a woman of great determination, strong convictions, strong faith and a role model for everyone she met. She found her place in the world beyond self-imposed boundaries or those boundaries placed upon her by her heritage. She was brave, adventuresome and carefree, traits her husband valued in her as well as “she was a looker”. She was the life of every party, was direct and honest to a fault, and cared deeply for others. She wasn’t the typical woman but that’s what made our lives so rich. We are thankful that her children, grandchildren, great and now great-great grandchildren had such a strong example of what life can be as a woman who was proud of her heritage and exemplified what unconditional love is. In so many ways she was the connection to a piece of our history and where we come from. She is proof that love breaks down barriers and no matter how different we are we are connected and can love each other.
We will cherish our memories and the love she shared.
Please join us for a Funeral Mass at St Joseph the Worker, 2310 SE 148th, Portland, OR 97233 on Tuesday February 25, 2020 at 11:00am. Preceded by a Rosary at 10:30am at St. Joseph.
Immediately following the mass please join us for a reception at 11603 NE Clackamas St., Portland OR 97220.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18